Combined cabinet and refrigerator.



WITNESS T. C. FLEMING.- COMBINED CABINET AND REFRIGERATOR.

Patented mu 25,1917.

2 SHEETSSIIEET l.

APPLICM ION FILED NOV. 20, HHS.

qa 5 4 a s i2 156 I 39 I x a"? 5 48 l ff l/Vl/ENTOR t 1150mm fifiemz'lzg '40 M A 4 ATTORNEY U E S THOMAS C. FLEMING, OF VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA.

COMBINED CABINET AND REFRIGERATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 25, 1917.

Application filed November 20, 1916. Serial No. 132,474.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS C. FLEMING, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Vancouver, Province of British Columbia, in the Dominion of Canada, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Combined Cabinets and Refrigerators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to-combined kitchen cabinet and refrigerator, and the object of my invention is to provide a cabinet and refrigerator, each of a given capacity, which shall be so combined to form a single structure that such single structure may not occupy more of the floor space of a room than would a separate cabinet or a separate refrigerator of said given capacity.

A further object of my invention is to provide a combined kitchen cabinet and refrigerator, the refrigerator portion of which shall embody a separate compartment for the storage of ice, adjoining compartments for the storage of articles of food and air passageways between said compartment for ice and each of said compartments for articles of food, each of said compartments having a separate door, of which doors, only the doors of the compartments for food may be independently opened and closed while the door of the compartment for ice may be opened and closed only when the other doors are open.

Another object of my invention is to provide the refrigerator portion of a combined ln'tchen cabinet and refrigerator with a compartment for ice, the door of which compartment shall be hinged, at its bottom edge to its door frame to swing outwardly and downwardly from its vertical closed position to a horizontal open position there to serve as a temporary support for a block of ice thus to facilitate the operation of intro ducing such block of ice into its compartment.

I accomplish these objects by devices illustrated in the accompanying drawing wherein Figure 1 is a view in front elevation of a combined kitchen cabinet and refrigerator embodying one form of my invention; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view showing details of the same in vertical section on broken line 2, 2, of Fig. 4; Fig. 3 is a view of the same in vertical section on broken line 3, 3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a View of the same in vertical sec- .vided with hinged panel doors 16, 17, 18, 19,

20, 21, 22 and 23 and with two drawers 24 and 25. i

As shown in Fig. 1, the doors 16 and 18 are hinged to their door frames 14 to swing outwardly from their closed positions in sidewise directions while the intermediate door 17 is hinged at its bottom edge portion to its door frame 14 to swing outwardly and downwardly from its closed position.

Each of the doors 16, 17 and 18 open into separate compartments formed by vertical partitions which are indicated by dotted lines 26 and 27 in Fig. 1 and by a common horizontal board 28 whose cross-section is shown in F igs. 3 and 4, which compartments may serve as storage space for kitchen utensils, non-perishable articles of food or other objects, and said compartments are provided with slidably removable shelves, as shelves 29 indicated in Figs. 3 and 4.

Fastened upon the inner side surface of the doors 16 and 18 are receptacles, as receptacles 30 shown in Fig. 3, which may serve conveniently to hold table lmives, forks, spoons, spice boxes or other objects.

Beneath the doors 16, 17 and 18 and under the horizontal board 28 are convenient drawers 24 and 25 that are supported by another horizontal board 31 which extends throughout the distance between the vertical side walls 11 and 12.

In a lower plane at a distance from and beneath the horizontal board 31 is a much wider and longer board 32 that serves not only as a shelf or broad table surface but also forms the top wall of the refrigerator portion of the structure, the interior space of which refrigerator portion is divided into three compartments 33, 34 and 35 by two vertical partitions 36 and 37 secured to upright studs 38 and 39 respectively, and said interior space is inclosed by spaced double walls (of well known form, filled with nonand kitchen utensils, the inner sides of its walls whose space is .in like manner filled with non-heat-conducting material 40.

The top spaced double walls'of said refrigerator portion, as shown more clearly in Figs. 3 and 4, are formed by the wide horizontal board 32 and an inner wall 41 spaced therefrom, and its bottom spaced double wall is formed by a horizontal under Wall 42 and an inner wall 43, while the side walls and back wall, as shown more clearly in Fig. 5, are formed by vertical side walls 11 and 12 and back wall 10 and by inner walls 44, 45

and 46 respectively.

The top edges of the partitions 36 and 37 are spaced from the inner wall 41 and their bottom edges are spaced from the inner wall 43 thus to form passageways for air between the diflerent compartments 33, 34, and 35. I

Fastened to the upright studs 38 and to the upright studs 39 at a short distance from their lower ends are transverse cleats removable ice tray 48 that is provided W1 a rack 49 and a drainage nipple 50 through which nipple 50 water from melting ice may escape from the tray 48 to fall into the funnel 51 disposed therebeneath, from which funnel 51 extends downwardly a drain pipe 52 that empties into a trap 53, as more clearly shown in Fig. 4, which trap 53 may be connected with a waste pipe not shown.

.Beneath the under wall 42 of'the refrigerator portion of the structure is a storage compartment 54 whose flooris formed by the bottom 'wall 15 of the cabinet and into 47 which serve as supports for a slidably which open the doors 22 and 23, said compartment 54 being convenient to hold dishes doors 22 and 23 being provided with useful receptacles, as receptacle 55 shown in Fig. 3.

The compartments 33 and 35 are each pro-' vided with slidably removable shelves, as shelves 56, which are perforated with holes like the holes 57, which holes permit the circulation of air within said compartments The door 20 of the middle com artment -34 of the refrigerator portion of t e structure has its bottom edge hinged to its door 7 frame 14 to adapt it to be opened by an outwardly and downwardly swinging movement to a horizontal position indicated by dotted lines 58 in Fig. 4, in which position its inner side surface will be in a plane that registers with the plane of the top surfaces of the cleats 47 so that the tray 48 may be supported by said door duringthe operation of sliding said tra 48 into its position on the cleats 47 within said compartment 34 in an obvious manner.

The door 20 is supported in its horizontal position, shown by dotted lines 58 in Fig. 4,

by means of chains (like the chain 59 shown in Fig. 4). one end of each of which is connected to a screw-eye like the screw-eye 60 that is fixed to the inner side of the door 20 and the other end of each of which is screwed to a different one of the upright studs 38 and 39.

The top side edges and the bottom side edges of the door 20 and the engaging surfaces of the door frame 14 are of echelon formation, the inner wall of said door 20 being shorter than its outer wall, as shown more clearly in Fig. 4, thereby to make staggered joints therebetween, the better to make said joints air tight, and said door 20 is locked in itsclosed position by a latch 61, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4.

The vertical side edges of said door 20 are each of echelon formation but reversed in direction so that the outer wall of said door 20 is narrower than its inner wall, as shown more clearly in Fig. 5.

All of 7 he side edges of the two doors 19 and 21 are of the same echelon formation and likewise are their door frames 14', and

, tively, thus to make the interior of the refrigerator portion of the structure substan- 1 tialliy air tight.

anifestly, a combined kitchen cabinet and refrigerator embodying my invention as illustrated and described will occupy no more of the floor space of a room than would a separate refrigerator or a separate cabinet of like respective capacities; and in the operation of putting ice into the compartment 34, first the doors 19 and 21 are opened, then the door 20 is opened to the horizontal position shown in Fig. 4, whereupon the tray 48 may be placed upon the door 20 and filled with ice, then said tray 48 may be pushed into its position on. the cleats 47 within the compartment 34, and thereupon the door 20 is first to be closed and then the doors 19 and 21 are closed.

Obviously, changes may be made in the fgrms, dimensions and arrangement of parts 0 y spirit thereof. 7

What I claim is:

invention without departing from the--- A combined cabinet and refrigerator comprising a single structure which embodies a .125

door for each of said compartments, the

door of one of said compartments being hinged at its bottom edge portion to its door frame to adapt it to be opened by swinging it outwardly and downwardly to a horizontal plane; means for supporting said door of said one compartment in said horizontal plane; cleats adapted to support an ice tray and secured within said one of said compartments and disposed so that their top surfaces register with the plane of the inner side surface of said door of said one compartment when said door is disposed in its horizontal position; an ice tray adapted to be disposed upon said cleats to be slidably movable between its position thereon and a partments when said door is in its closed po- SltlOIl. v e

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe portions of the door of said one of said commy name this 12th day of November A. D.,

THOMAS C: FLEMING. Witnesses:

FRANK WARREN, GEO. BLAm. 

